ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 



This road was an overhead trolley-wire system, with 

 an undeminning trolley held in place by the now-fa- 

 miliar trolley pole. The number of difficulties that had 

 to be solved in perfecting this apparently simple piece 

 of apparatus is shown by the statement of Mr. Sprague 

 that "probably not less than fifty modifications of trolley 

 wheels and poles were used before what is known as 

 the 'universal movement' type was adopted." 



In this connection the origin of the word "trolley" is 

 interesting. It seems to have been corrupted from the 

 word "troller" by the workmen of a Kansas City car- 

 line. On this line an overhead wire was used, the travel- 

 ling carriage taking the current from the wire being 

 known as the "troller." The employees of the road, 

 however, shortly corrupted "troller" into "trolley"; 

 and "trolley" it has remained ever since. 



As in the case of Van Depoele, whose perfection of 

 the underrunning trolley was contested legally, Sprague's 

 great contribution to electric traction, the suspension of 

 the motor directly upon the axle, had finally to be sus- 

 tained by the United States courts. Sprague's method 

 was to hang the motor under the car directly upon the 

 axle, by an extension or solid bearing attached directly 

 to the motor. This plan of constructing the motor, 

 together with numerous other improvements, principally 

 in the direction of lightness, simplicity, and adaptability, 

 soon superseded all pre-existing methods of construction. 

 Thus Van Depoele's method of taking the current from 

 the wire, and Sprague's method of utilizing it in the 

 propulsion of the car, must be regarded as epoch-mark- 

 ing steps in tho history of electric traction. Sprague's 



[187] 



